When Ellis learns of a mysterious tragedy that keeps Sara from loving him, he embarks to uncover just what that mystery is. What he finds is heartbreaking, something that will force him to confront his own faith-shattering past and his view of the Christian church. And what secret does the town drunk hold regarding the moment that shattered Sara's life forever?Cicadas appear every seventeen years in such quantity that they fill the skies and harmlessly pelt anything that moves. The town of Anderson celebrates the coming of these insects with a festival that they call Cicada Song.In 1987 a young boy named Jacob Ramsey fell for a girl named Sara, whose family was visiting for Cicada Song. Little did they realize, however, that their young love would end ten years later during the most shocking moment of Anderson’s history.Time passes and the next Cicada Song begins. Self-published author Ellis Barnes is invited to Anderson as an attraction and there he meets the quick-witted but guarded Sara, now fully grown and quite lovely. He quickly falls for her but something from Sara's past prevents her from getting too close. Facing resistance from Jacob Ramsey’s best friend, Stan, and the town drunk, Phil, Ellis is determined to uncover exactly what Sara’s mysterious past is. What he finds will force Ellis to confront a faith-shattering tragedy from his own past, a tragedy that diminished his faith in the Christian church, but also one which might hold the key to overcoming Sara’s private barriers. And what secret does Phil, the town drunk, hold regarding the moment that shattered Sara’s life forever?Bradford Combs writes a love story full of mystery, suspense, and questions of faith that will stick with you long after its final page is turned. Views: 453
Dr. Felicity Hamilton-Smith desperately needs a change of scene so she signs up for a ten-day bike ride around Victoria. The last thing she expects is to run slap-bang into her former fiancé. For her, the past is over and best left behind, or so she thinks. The last time Dr. Drew Baxter saw Felicity was when he broke her heart. Now, seeing her again is breaking his.Dr. Felicity Hamilton-Smith desperately needs a change of scene so she signs up for a ten-day bike ride around Victoria. The last thing she expects is to run slap-bang into her former fiancé. For her, the past is over and best left behind, or so she thinks. The last time Dr. Drew Baxter saw Felicity was when he broke her heart when he left to serve in Afghanistan. Now, seeing her again, is breaking his. Views: 453
Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 1957 classic, On the Road, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. Atop an Underwood brings together more than sixty previously unpublished works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two, ranging from stories and poems to plays and parts of novels, including an excerpt from his 1943 merchant marine novel, The Sea Is My Brother. These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years, and reflect his primary literary influences. Readers will also find in these works the source of Kerouac's spontaneous prose style.
Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac's development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics. Views: 453
Brilliant, painful, dazzling, and funny as hell, Yellow Dog is Martin Amis’ highly anticipated first novel in seven years and a stunning return to the fictional form.
When “dream husband” Xan Meo is vengefully assaulted in the garden of a London pub, he suffers head injury, and personality change. Like a spiritual convert, the familial paragon becomes an anti-husband, an anti-father. He submits to an alien moral system -- one among many to be found in these pages. We are introduced to the inverted worlds of the “yellow” journalist, Clint Smoker; the high priest of hardmen, Joseph Andrews; and the porno tycoon, Cora Susan. Meanwhile, we explore the entanglements of Henry England: his incapacitated wife, Pamela; his Chinese mistress, He Zhezun; his fifteen-year-old daughter, Victoria, the victim of a filmed “intrusion” that rivets the world -- because she is the future Queen of England, and her father, Henry IX, is its King. The connections between these characters provide the pattern and drive of Yellow Dog.
If, in the 21st century, the moral reality is changing, then the novel is changing too, whether it likes it or not. Yellow Dog is a model of how the novel, or more particularly the comic novel, can respond to this transformation.
But Martin Amis is also concerned here with what is changeless and perhaps unchangeable. Patriarchy, and the entire edifice of masculinity; the enormous category-error of violence, arising between man and man; the tortuous alliances between men and women; and the vanished dream (probably always an illusion, but now a clear delusion) that we can protect our future and our progeny.
*Meo heard no footsteps; what he heard was the swish, the shingly soft-shoe of the hefted sap. Then the sharp two-finger prod on his shoulder. It wasn’t meant to happen like this. They expected him to turn and he didn’t turn -- he half-turned, then veered and ducked. So the blow intended merely to break his cheekbone or his jawbone was instead received by the cranium, that spacey bulge (in this instance still quite marriageably forested) where so many delicate and important powers are so trustingly encased.
He crashed, he crunched to his knees, in obliterating defeat. . . . *-- from Yellow Dog
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 453
Book 6.5 in the #1 bestselling Wishes Series
'If you spend too long in a small town, you’ll eventually fade away. And on the eve of my twenty-fifth birthday, I realised that I was practically invisible.'
After spending a lifetime following her domineering sister’s glitzy ways, Lily Tate is finally ready to step out on her own.
Breaking away from Jasmine is difficult, but ditching the ugly reputation she’s gained after years of sketchy behaviour is even harder.
Thankfully, she’s not going it alone.
After turning her back on her old life, Lily gains a brand new support system – namely a reluctant new best friend and a boy who might be important.
With their encouragement, there’s every chance that the real Lily Tate might step forward. Views: 453
The emotional conclusion to the I am HER... trilogy.
Does everything become amazing because you have the man and the life of your dreams? Does the nightmare stop, and the past fade?
No, it doesn't.
The past is always there, simmering in the background, stewing and bubbling to the surface of your soul. The past is always there no matter how much you wish it would go away and leave you alone.
No matter how hard you try or how far you come, life never changes.
For HER or for him.
Life continues until you wake one day beyond the storms of insanity to realize you will always love, no matter how tragic the heartache and pain becomes.
This is our good, bad, ugly and beautiful.
And together, we are US... Views: 453
A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story — and why doing so matters. Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small). He shows that anyone can learn to be an appealing storyteller, that everyone has something "storyworthy" to express, and, perhaps most important, that the act of creating and telling a tale is a powerful way of understanding and enhancing your own life. Views: 452
We're a match made in hell, Stefan and I. He took me to exact his revenge. I went from being a pawn to my father to being a pawn to Stefan. The only difference is I have a ring the size of a boulder on my finger and a husband I don't want. And the hardest part is I thought he was different. I thought I was falling in love. I guess my father was right. I'm not a very smart girl. Stefan is a powerful man. He doesn't play nice, not if you're his enemy. But I've learned one thing about my husband. He takes care of what's his. And I am his. His enemies have become my enemies, but he'll never let anyone hurt me. He's fiercely protective. It's the predator inside that scares me. Views: 452
All Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission. Views: 452
Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halberdier copybook. Men at Arms is the first book in Waugh’s brilliant trilogy, Sword of Honour, which chronicles the fortunes of Guy Crouchback. The second and third volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, are also published in Penguin. Sword of Honour has recently been made into a television drama series, with screenplay by William Boyd. Views: 452
